And when to this is added the “hope of reward” which it is most truly said “sweetens labor,” which the credit for “over work,” granted to the prisoners in our Penitentiary, presents to them, a powerful additional motive to application is brought into action with most salutary results. One of the prisoners in the Penitentiary recently informed a member of our Committee, that he had earned in one month $17, by over work, after performing his allotted task,--that is to say, $8 50 for himself, and the same amount for the Penitentiary, for the use of the County from which he came, and he added, with an appearance of much interest, that he expected at the end of the three years he had yet to serve, to take out with him between three and four hundred dollars. Many of them are thus soon brought to see and feel that labor instead of being repulsive, as it had formerly appeared to them, greatly alleviates the necessary discomforts of their present condition, and also that it is a reliable resource for the maintenance of those who apply themselves to it. Many also, who on entering had no knowledge of any kind of trade, on leaving, take with them, not only habits of industry, but also a pretty thorough acquaintance with some one or more of the mechanic arts, such as shoe-making, cane-seating of chairs, weaving, &c. They are thus qualified, upon again going forth into the world, to take a reputable position in society, and secure a livelihood without resuming their depredations on the community. Estimating the value of labor for the prisoners as we do, it is gratifying to us to know that they have recently been pretty fully supplied with it. It is the intention and direction of the Law, that it shall be thus supplied; and we believe, as will be seen by our foregoing remarks, that it is a valuable adjunct in the Pennsylvania or Separate System of Prison Discipline. In the early period of the introduction of this system, some men, of undoubted talent and philanthropy, strongly advocated separate confinement, _without labor_, as being the true system, and this plan was actually introduced and practically tested at the Western Penitentiary of this State, established at Pittsburg; but it was soon found to be wrong, and to have an injurious effect, both upon the mental and physical health of the prisoners. It was also tried in the State Penitentiary at Auburn, New York, in 1822, under accompanying circumstances however of great cruelty, and of unfairness so far as it was intended as a test of the effect of the Separate System on the mental and bodily condition of those subjected to it.